All my life, I’ve been your typical weird quiet girl. Sit at the back of class, spend my recesses and breaks in the library or classrooms, keep friends close and the general populace at a distance. Keep your head down, keep quiet, keep busy. That’s how it goes when everything high school has to offer is totally uninteresting. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve never been alone by any means- I’ve always had good friends to keep me company, and hobbies to keep me entertained. Shorewood just didn’t give me what I wanted.

For example, sports. Everybody knows the stereotypes of football games and cheerleaders, basketball and baseball, swimmers, golfers and runners. I actually did enjoy running in elementary school, but the energy changed in middle school. Suddenly it wasn’t a club or hobby but a sport, a competition. It drove me away from something I used to care about. High school only heightens that expectation- why are you spending time on something you won’t use to further yourself? What’s the use of doing something if you’re not going to compete? Sports are great for the students willing to make those commitments, but for kids like me who just wanted to have fun? It wasn’t the right thing to do.

So what about the arts? Band, orchestra, drama, the things that we fought so hard to save from budget cuts? Those too are massive commitments. The arts are niche interests in a way- you need to have the passion and care for those things to get into them, and the time and energy to keep them going. What happens if you’re not one for making music, and performing gives you the heebie-jeebies? There’s the tech crews, but the thought persists that those limited spots are best left for those with the passion and commitment to show up day after day to make the shows happen. I’ve dipped my toe into this realm too, as a member of the tech crew for “Legally Blonde,” but my first day on the job was canceled thanks to COVID-19. Maybe if our lives had continued unfettered, theater would’ve been my passion, but back I came in junior year, and that was no longer the option it once was.

Undoubtedly, COVID-19 was to blame for much of this lack of activity. Nobody did much of anything for those first few months of lockdown. However, most of the time it was just that Shorewood had nothing to offer me in its extracurriculars. The regular high school experience isn’t for everyone, and that’s okay. I’ve never been bothered by lacking the same activities as my peers. Sometimes being the nobody in the corner is just how it goes, and it’s not a bad path. It’s just different.